


Adjacent

by FanMomMer



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Light Angst, Post-episode s01e05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 18:28:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8411926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanMomMer/pseuds/FanMomMer
Summary: Mike overhears a conversation not meant for his ears.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So, I haven’t written anything in a while. A long while. But this show and this ship have grabbed me and I just really wanted to explore both Ginny and Mike’s feelings after Ginny finds out about Mike and Amelia. This is canon divergent after 1x05. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Thanks to my favorite, @darlinginmyway, for reading and cheerleading.

There was no two ways about it. She was avoiding him. It had been nearly a week since she had answered a call from him, or given him more than the absolute minimum amount of polite attention he was due as her captain and her catcher. After the first few - dozen - ignored calls, he had jokingly asked her what was up, trying to keep things light, only to be met with a muttered response about calling his girlfriend instead. He stopped asking. **  
**

He shouldn’t feel guilty. What was there to feel guilty about? He and Amelia were both single, consenting adults, enjoying each other’s company. It had absolutely nothing to do with Ginny Baker. Nothing at all. At all. He wasn’t with Amelia because she was _Ginny-adjacent_. No he was not.

So why couldn’t he get rid of the growing knot in his chest; the one that felt like a permanent fixture the last few days? Why did he feel like he had done something wrong? So wrong, in fact, that it appeared to have cost him what was fast becoming one of the most important friendships - relationships - in his life? And why did that bother him so damn much?

A week of ignored calls, stilted conversation, avoiding eye contact. And Mike had had enough. After their pretty brutal loss, the 3rd in a row, it was time to clear the air and figure this shit out. Because the gulf between him and Ginny wasn’t just costing him off the field anymore, it was affecting the game, and the team. And that couldn’t continue.

Showered and dressed and armed with his most charming smile, ready to hash it out and fix things with his rookie, Mike strode the short distance to her private door. He raised his hand to knock, when he heard Ginny’s voice.

“I just…I don’t know how to explain it, Blip.”

He should go. He should turn around and walk away right now. Because eavesdropping on private conversations? Not the best idea when trying to earn his way back into Ginny’s good graces.

But there was something about the tone of her voice. It was soft, and sad, and resigned. Like…like she knew it was inevitable. Like she was used to being hurt, and this was no different. Just another person who had let her down. And that knot in Mike’s chest? Tightened exponentially.

“I know you’re upset, Gin, but this _thing_ with you and Lawson? The tension or whatever? It’s bleeding into the game. And that’s no good.” Blip’s voice was tentative and gentle, almost as if he was talking to an anxious child.

Mike’s fists clenched of their own accord. If Blip was being careful and tentative with Ginny…it meant that his friend thought she needed it. And she would only need it if she was hurt.

“I know that!” Ginny responded, and even through the door Mike could hear her frustration. “I’m _trying._ I don’t even know why I feel so…so…” he heard her sigh and then a thump, like maybe she had sat down hard on the bench. “So betrayed, Blip. And I know it doesn’t make any sense. I _know that_. But I can’t help it.”

It was quiet for a minute, and if Mike was less of a total asshole he’d be walking down the hall right now, and not standing with his ear against the door like a fucking creeper. But this was the most he’d heard Ginny talk in a week, and to hear her say she felt betrayed by him…it was a punch in the gut. Literally, he felt like he needed to sit down. And he needed to understand.

“Gin…” Blip started, but Ginny interrupted him.

“I know, okay? But it’s just that…you and Evelyn? You guys are like, my only friends.” She laughed, a sarcastic and brittle sound, even through the walls. “How sad is that? That I only have two friends? And I love you guys and I know you love me but…you also have each other. And you have kids, and at the end of the day that comes first. No Blip don’t. I’m not looking for sympathy or whatever the fuck. That’s just how it is. And how it should be. Evelyn is your person. And you’re hers.”

“So, what?” Blip asked. “Mike was your person?”

The question made something ache in Mike’s chest. He felt hollow and raw and just…. _was_ he her person? Did he want to be?

 _Yes._ His mind answered, almost immediately.

“No. Yes. I don’t know!” Ginny said. “I don’t know. But it just finally felt like I had someone who was my friend first. Who didn’t want anything from me, and wasn’t trying to orbit around my celebrity status or whatever. Someone who wasn’t paid to spend time with me. And someone who didn’t look at me like a…like a product.”

“You mean like Amelia?” Blip asked softly, and damn if there wasn’t now a knife twisting in Mike’s gut. Because, okay, he was starting to get the picture. She had viewed him as a friend. A confidante. She had trusted him. And he had gone and slept with someone who…who handled her. He had taken that tentative trust, that burgeoning closeness, and he had thrown it aside like it was meaningless.

He hadn’t _meant_ to, of course. He hadn’t really meant to do anything…all of this with Amelia had kind of just spiraled and if he was totally honest with himself (which he wasn’t, often), he had been trying to keep Ginny in a very neatly defined teammate/friend box. But in doing so, well, he had been a shitty friend.

_She had your poster on her wall._

Amelia’s words reverberated in his head, popping up unbidden and only adding to the guilt already eating him up inside.

So yeah, Mike was a total asshole. And not just for listening in on a very private conversation.

“Amelia is great,” Ginny was saying when Mike tuned back into the conversation he shouldn’t have been hearing in the first place. “And I know she cares about me. I do. But in the end…I’m her client. I’m her income, you know? She isn’t my friend first.”

There was silence again for a minute, and really Mike should have been getting the fuck outta there. But his feet were rooted to the floor. He needed to see this through. It was almost physically painful, listening to Ginny’s vulnerability and insecurities and knowing he had directly contributed. But he needed to hear the rest.

“I just wanted someone who was mine, first. You know?” Ginny’s voice was quieter than before, and Mike had to strain to hear. “I thought maybe…maybe that could be Mi-Lawson.”

The fact that she wouldn’t even say his first name hit him harder than anything else had.

Man, he had really fucked things up.

“I’m sorry, Gin. I really am. I don’t know what else to say to…” Blip’s voice was getting closer to the door, and now Mike really needed to go.

He didn’t stick around to hear the rest of what was said. He headed down the hallway quickly, planting himself against the wall where he and Ginny had talked golf what felt like ages ago.

He waited a couple minutes and was rewarded for his patience when Blip and Ginny walked straight towards him. Ginny’s eyes met his briefly before she looked away, not even slowing down as she started to pass him. Blip flashed him an apologetic smile but also kept walking.

“Hey, Gin,” Mike called out to her, keeping his voice soft and not even having to work to inject the hint of pleading he could hear in his tone.

She stopped, but didn’t turn around. Mike let out a breath, determined to grab this chance and not blow it.

“Listen, can we talk for a minute? I won’t take up too much of your time but…” he paused, taking another breath. It was now or never, it felt like. His make or break moment. “I owe you an apology.”

Ginny finally turned around, slowly, her surprise clear in her eyes. She looked at him for a long moment, appraising him with obvious suspicion. But after a long minute where nobody said anything, and Mike was aware of Blip watching the two of them closely, she nodded.

She turned to Blip and dipped her chin, and the other man nodded back in response before looking over at Mike again. Mike held Blip’s gaze and a moment of understanding passed between them before Blip turned and headed towards the exit.

When Mike turned back to Ginny, she was watching him warily, and Mike was struck again by how deeply he had cut her. Without intending to, and definitely without wanting to, he had reopened old wounds that he hadn’t even realized existed. But whether intentional or not, he had caused the injury, and now he had to fix it.

“Listen, I know I said I’d only take a minute of your time,” Mike started, and Ginny’s eyes narrowed, “but I have a lot I want to say. A lot I wanna try to make right here,” he hurried to continue. “Do you…can we go grab a drink?” He ran his hand over his beard before adding, “Please?”

Mike held his breath while he watched the wheels turning in Ginny’s head. Finally, after what felt like forever, she nodded.

“Yeah, I guess that would be okay.”

And as they walked out of Petco side by side for the first time in a week, the knot that had taken up residence in Mike’s chest finally loosened, just a bit. He had another chance to be Ginny Baker’s person, and this time he wouldn’t fuck it up.


End file.
